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Itoft €l)nnkBgitiing toing tjjt IReliElliniJ. 




A SEKMON, 


, 


% 




FRE^CMEl:) IVOA^EIMBEK 28, 18G1, 




BY 




GARDINER SPRING, D.D., 




PASTOR OF THE BRICK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE CITY OF NEAV YORK. 

1 




1 
1 

NEW YORK: 




HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 




FRANKLIN SQUARE. 


'■ 


i 1862. 

1 



61508 



STATE THANKSGIVING 



DURING 



THE REBELLION. 



Itnfe ClianksgiDing taring tliB IRekllinn. 



A SEEMON, 



PREACHED NOVEMBER- S 8, 1861, 



BY 



GAEDINEK SPEING, D.D., 

PASTOR OF THE BEICK PEESBTTEEIAN CHUECH IN THE CITT OF NEW TOKK. 



NEW YORK: 

HAEPER & BROTHEES, PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN SQUARE. 

1862. 



t^ 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-two, by 

HARPER & BROTHERS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of 
Neu- York. 



'^" 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 



"Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his 
wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not 
the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth 
glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I 
am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and 
righteousness in the earth ; for in these things I delight, saith 
the Lord." — Jeremiah^ ix., 23, 24. 

It is an affecting, a bitter lamentation, 
which introduces the chapter that contains 
this wholesome admonition. The prophet 
who uttered it was a devout and strong pa- 
triot ; and though he foresaw the calamities 
that were coming upon his country, and was 
promised security and plenty if he would re- 
nounoe his allegiance and go over to the en- 
emy, he chose rather to share her disasters. 
Her wickedness had provoked the God of 
Israel ; the measure of it was full, and wrath 
was about to fall upon them to the uttermost, 
in the destruction of their city, and in the exile 
and dispersion of the highly-favored and sig- 



6 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 



nally-punished people. The weeping proph- 
et was worn out with sorrow ; their sins and 
desolations had well-nigh exhausted his griefs, 
and he exclaims, " O that my head were wa- 
ters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I 
might weep day and night for the slain of the 
daughter of my people !" In the midst of all 
these visitations they were a proud and self- 
glorying nation. Their history was little else 
than the narrative of their progress and splen- 
dor ; and it was to the last degree difficult to 
persuade them that the land once so pre-emi- 
nent in arms and physical resources would be 
the prey of a foreign power ; once so distin- 
guished for its luxuriant fertility should ever 
become "a desolation, and an astonishment, 
and a curse." Among other sins, therefore, 
the prophet was directed to rebuke their na- 
tional egotism and vanity. The pre-eminence 
they had gained they felt wise enough, and 
strong enough, and wealthy enough to de- 
fend and maintain. 

The thoughts suggested on the present oc- 
casion must necessarily be modified by events 
that are passing around us. The melancholy 
conflict in which we are engaged is full of 
danger ; we need the shield and buckler of an 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. ly 

Almighty arm. If we fail to honor the God 
of heaven and earth ; if our rulers, our war- 
riors, our churches and their ministers lose 
sight of their dependence on Him ; and if we 
boast of our wisdom, our martial prowess, and 
our wealth, we may well despair of the re- 
stored integrity and permanent peace and 
prosperity of our beloved land. The text 
specifies those things in which we may* not 
glory and those in which we niai/ glory. Let 
us advert, 

I. In the first place, to those national 
qualifications and attainments in which 
we may not glory. 

Let not the wise man glory in his wis- 
dom. This was the marked characteristic 
of ancient Israel. With all their faults, they 
were among the wisest nations of the earth ; 
their history, their laws, and institutions placed 
them upon an eminence far above the con- 
temporaneous and surrounding nations. The 
superiority of ancient Greece and Rome over 
less intellectual and less cultivated lands, and 
the superiority of Great Britain and France 
over all the nations in the north of Europe, 
and the superiority of the American States 
over the Red Men of the forest, are to be 



8 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 



attributed to their intellectual advancement. 
Men and nations obtain credit and distinction 
for nothing more than their wisdom. Gath- 
ered up as it is from habits of thought and 
study, from careful observation, and, not un- 
frequentlj, painful experience, it is no matter 
of wonder that it is highly esteemed. How 
to devise their plans for the present and the 
futifre ; how to adjust them i^ view of the fa- 
cilities that may advance, or obstacles which 
may oppose their progress ; how to form a cor- 
rect judgment of the character and tactics of 
friends and foes ; how to anticipate, arid fore- 
stall, and frustrate evil machinations and turn 
them to good account ; how to act so as to 
hazard nothing by rashness and lose nothing 
by delay ; how, in few words, to select the best 
ends, and the best time and means of accom- 
plishing them, is a rare faculty when bestowed, 
and a rare attainment when sought after. 

We have high authority for saying, " Wis- 
dom is better than weapons of war." Yet 
much as we should seek its counsels, and 
profitable as it is to direct, we may not make 
it the ground of our dependence or the foun- 
dation of our hopes. God gave the Assyrian 
his ascendency over the nations, and his tri- 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. Q 

umphs upon Mount Zion and in Jerusalem ; 
and in the pride of his heart he said, " I have 
done it by my wisdom ; for I am prudent, and 
I have removed the bounds of the people, and 
mine hand hath found as a nest their riches." 
But God rebuked his arrogance, and brought 
down his stout heart, "as when a standard- 
bearer fainteth." No nation on the earth has 
gloried more in its wisdom than this young 
republic. Our national independence, our no- 
ble Constitution, our transactions with foreign 
governments, we have attributed to the wis- 
dom of our fathers, to the far-sightedness of 
our politicians, and to the skill of our states- 
men ; and for our safety as a nation we have 
self-complacently relied upon the intelligence 
of the people. 

We may well be thankful for these attain- 
ments as God's agents in the achievement of 
his own wise and benevolent ends, but we 
may not glory in them. We honor the wis- 
dom and generalship of the warrior, but there 
is a wisdom above him that " taketh the wise 
in their own craftiness." There is "no wis- 
dom nor counsel against the Lord." Our 
wisdom will fail us, and the " prudence of our 
wise men will perish" if we idolize the crea- 

2 



10 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 



ture. " God will destroy the wisdom of the 
wise, and bring to naught the understanding 
of the prudent." Let not the wise glory in 
their wisdom ! 

Neither let the mighty man glory in his 

MIGHT. 

The boastful remark has been often repeat- 
ed, that this fearful contest must be decided 
by the superiority of numbers and physical 
force. It would seem so : I hope in God it 
will prove so. A disciplined army of 600,000, 
weekly augmented by such large accessions, 
would seem to give little hope to the rebel- 
lion, but rather justify the American people 
in strong anticipations of victory. Nor are 
such anticipations to be discouraged or frown- 
ed upon so long as they are modified by hum- 
ble reverence of the Deity, and a chastened 
dependence upon his providence. Human 
dependence and human activity stand abreast 
in all the arrangements of the divine govern- 
ment. God has his own way of working, but 
it is well-nigh uniformly through human in- 
strumentality. In repelling the invasions of 
this rebellion, our common sense and common 
Christianity teach us to make a due estimate 
of our numbers. " What king," says the Sa- 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. J J 

vior, " going to make war against another king, 
sitteth not down first and consulteth whether 
he be able, with 10,000, to meet him that com- 
eth against him with 20,000?" We do no 
honor to the providence of God by hstlessness 
and inactivity ; rather do we dishonor it when 
we hesitate to put forth those exertions by 
which we become " fellow-workers with him," 
and do homage to it only when our co-opera- 
tion helps forward his designs. 

Yet, while the Creator condescends to as- 
sign to his creatures their proper place and 
instrumentality, it becomes the creature to 
recognize and honor the supremacy of the 
Almighty Creator. Though the spirit of the 
warrior may be stirred within him, and he put 
forth his most ardent zeal and intense activ- 
ity, " the mighty man may not glory in his 
might." The race is not always to the swift, 
nor the battle to the strong. Opportunity and 
a particular providence — "time and chance 
happeneth to them all." Jonathan and his 
armor-bearer achieved more than the whole 
army of Saul. The 300 that lapped under 
Gideon were more potent than the combined 
forces of Midian and Amalek. The sling and 
the stone of David subdued the impious and 



J2 THANKSGIVING SEKMON. 

vaunting champion of the PhiUstines. When 
Israel trembled before the hosts of Syria, and 
cast themselves at the foot of God's throne, a 
sweeping pestilence destroyed 185,000 of their 
enemies in a single night. A blasting storm 
scattered the naval power of Spain on the 
very eve of her anticipated glorying in En- 
gland's downfall. When Louis XIV. entered 
the Low Countries with an army that threat- 
ened to bear down all opposition, a few undis- 
cipUned troops, with the Prince of Orange at 
their head, opened the channels for the ocean 
to inundate their island city, and their proud 
foe was disheartened. When Leopold of Aus- 
tria marched against the cantons of Switzer- 
land with an army of 20,000 men, the patriotic 
Swiss, with an army of 1400, and with the loss 
of fourteen men, either killed or dispersed the 
whole Austrian forces. Frederick the Great 
of Prussia, in the terrible campaign of 1757, 
with an army of 260,000 men, stood against 
the combined powers of France, Austria, Rus- 
sia, and Sweden, who brought into the field an 
army of 700,000. England, during the war 
of the Revolution, counted on her armies and 
her navy to overthrow this American repub- 
lic ; but there were causes above her boasted 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. i Q 

prowess, and she saw the " Httle one become a 
thousand, and the small one a strong nation." 
Napoleon once said that " he had found that 
Providence always favored the strongest bat- 
talions." Yet he did not find it so in the Rus- 
sian campaign. He could contend with ser- 
ried hosts, but he could not contend with the 
elements. He could contend with men ; but, 
be the numbers and discipline of his army 
what they might, he could not contend with 
storms, and pestilence, and God Almighty. 
This is the lesson which the brave and the 
mighty are slow to learn. At his bidding who 
works and none shall let it, and out of whose 
hand none can deliver — even without the aid 
of second causes, the foreseeing may become 
blind, the reflecting and considerate may be- 
come precipitate and rash, the brave and the 
mighty may become panic-struck, may mis- 
take friend for foe, and flee from the field when 
there are none to pursue them. This gener- 
ous flame may not always burn in the hour 
of alarm. This contempt of danger may veil 
its intrepid front amid blood and carnage. I 
have no such confidence in the prowess of 
the mighty as to be persuaded that, by many 
an unthought-of incident, the God of heaven 



24 THANKSGIVING SERMON. 

may not disappoint the warrior's anticipations, 
make his face gather paleness, and turn his 
proud hopes into humihation and despair. 
We honor his martial spirit, but we would re- 
buke his arrogance and pride. We admire 
his tranquil courage amid convulsive agonies 
and slaughtered corpses, and yet we say, " Let 
not the mighty man glory in his might." 

Once more : neither let the rich man glo- 
ry IN HIS RICHES. That " money is the sinews 
of war" is a maxim as old as the days of Dry- 
den. That nation is infatuated who, in this, as 
well as in every other view, does not "count 
the cost" of its battles. Most cheerfully have 
our loyal states, our moneyed institutions, and 
our rich men poured forth their treasures for 
the suppression of this rebellion ; and most 
gladly do poorer men, so far from regarding 
the legal demands of the government an un- 
called-for exaction, yield it the support of their 
hard-earned stipend. This is right, and just 
as it should be. Yet when I hear the remark 
often repeated that the nation is sure to come 
off victorious which has the longest purse, 
and listen to it clothed in " great swelling 
words of vanity," I confess to some misgiv- 
ings as to the result of this vain boasting. I 
am afraid God will frown upon us. 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. -^^ 

These loyal states have acquired wealth, 
sometimes dishonestly and wickedly, but for 
the most part by honest industry, severe econ- 
omy, useful arts and inventions, and therefore 
we glory in it. We have repudiated the aris- 
tocracy of hereditary descent, and hereditary 
place and titles, but we are no strangers to 
the aristocracy of wealth. With gratitude to 
the Father of lights, we acknowledge we are 
a rich nation. Such are our facilities for the 
attainment of wealth, and such the bounty of 
divine Providence, that our merchants are as 
the princes of Tyre. We " have made haste 
to be rich." Early and late, in season and out 
of season, the strongest faculties of body and 
mind, with a directness of purpose, and an en- 
ergy, an intensity of action, have been direct- 
ed to the acquisition of wealth. Gold may 
well be called the Moloch of the land. It is 
a king whose court none can approach with- 
out paying homage. With unblushing ef- 
frontery it makes its way to the ballot-box, 
and gives its impulse to the rough machinery 
of our popular elections. The Shibboleth of 
party rings through its halls, and even sworn 
legislators worship at its altars ; and what is 
worse, justice, the last refuge of society, and 



16 



THANKSGIVING SEEMON. 



which should be ahke indifferent to the smiles 
or the frowns, the caprices or the passions of 
the people ; which ought to be independent 
of every thing but an enlightened and honest 
conscience, and which ought to be blind to ev- 
ery thing except to " the law and the testimo- 
ny," pays tribute to the shrine of Mammon. 
That mischievous maxim that " to the victors 
belong the spoils," has become embodied in 
the creed of the nation, and even now threat- 
ens to give the death-blow to the republic. 
These are humiliating admissions ; but such, 
to a lamentable and ill-boding extent, is the 
character of the American people. We " have 
made gold our hope, and said to the fine gold, 
thou art our confidence." 

Yet who does not see that " riches can not 
save us in the day of wrath ? " Gold can not 
harmonize our counsels ; can not bring back 
lost opportunities ; can not rectify our blun- 
ders ; can not tell us when, and where, and 
how to strike the heaviest blow ; can not shield 
us from treachery ; and can not impart either 
the ability or the integrity which the nation 
calls for. Rather does it stimulate that ego- 
tism and peculation which excite suspicion 
and disturb the confidence of honest men. 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. -f^ 

This pomp of riches, this boast of national 
weahh, what is it ? How vain is it to array 
the mines of Cahfornia and the vaults of Wall 
Street against an all-pervading Providence ! ' 
Babylon the great was decked with gold, and 
precious stones, and pearls ; she glorified her- 
self, and lived deliciously ; yet her merchant 
princes wept over her, for in one hour her 
great riches came to naught. No, we are not 
entitled to victory because we have the longest 
purse. There must be another will, another 
power, and the utterance of another voice. 
No : " let not the rich man glory in his riches." 

If you ask why we may not glory in these 
things, the answer is easily given. Nations 
may not be governed by other principles of 
morality than those which ought to control 
the individuals who compose them. We have 
little respectybr the man whose measures and 
conduct are controlled by the spirit of self-ag- 
grandizement. Deeply rooted as this spirit is 
in the human heart, and all-pervading as is its 
influence, it is " out and out" the spirit of evil. 
It makes men, and not patriots ; it may make 
conquerors, but not heroes ; it forms the vic- 
tims of an ambition which grasps at empire, 
but not just men ruling in the fear of God. 

3 



18 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 



Nothing disarms its fury or arrests its vio- 
lence. And it is just as bad in nations as in 
men. It is less unseemly, because it has the 
mien of greatness ; it is less ignoble and con- 
demned, because it is more splendid. It seems 
to savor of a generous patriotism, but it sets 
up only the phantom of national glory. It 
amuses and dazzles, and the giddy and un- 
thinking follow it as they do the path of the 
meteor. 

The " Most High, who ruleth among the 
children of menj' forbids this spirit. " Cursed 
is the man," says he, "that trusteth in man, 
and maketh flesh his arm." He calls it idol- 
atry when we thus ^' sacrifice to our own net, 
and burn incense to our own drag." It is the 
spirit which he hates, and is determined to 
abase. There is no lesson in his Word more 
obvious than this. There is nothing in his 
government of the world which he is so set 
on humbling as this pride of man. He has 
read the lesson so often in order that " no flesh 
should glory in his presence," and he will read 
it again from the stormy sea, from the angry 
heavens, and from the lurid battle-field. It is 
this self-glorying spirit which banished angels 
from their thrones ; which kindled the flames 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. ■■ g 

of Sodom ; which overthrew Pharaoh and his 
hosts in the Red Sea ; and which precipitated 
the Sauls, the Cyruses, the Alexanders, the 
Csesars, the Alarics, the Genghis Khans, and 
the Napoleons of our earth to an untimely 
and ignoble grave. Yet Nebuchadnezzar was 
scarcely more intoxicated with the pomp and 
pride of royalty when he walked in his palace 
and said, " Is not this great Babylon which I 
have built by the might of my power and the 
honor of my majesty ?" than has been and is 
the proud and vaunting spirit of the American 
people. We are an arrogant nation, prompt 
to defy the world in arms, and to challenge all 
comparison with other lands. Instead of mov- 
ing on in our course courageously and faith- 
fully, meekly and in the fear of God, and ful- 
filling our mission so as to establish the truth 
that man is capable of self-government, our 
hearts have been hfted up, we have walked 
loftily, rushing in the pursuit of greatness, 
reckless and extravagant, and confident of our 
resources. " Young America," the special gen- 
ius of the age, a conceited, brave, impetuous 
youth, revering nothing, fearing nothing, has 
been our idol, and on this altar we have sac- 
rificed not a little of the morals and the true 
dignity of the nation. 4. 



20 THANKSGIVING SERMON. 

I do not look for the admiration and ap- 
plause of men in giving utterance to thoughts 
like these. The theme is one which does not 
vibrate to the popular ear. Bitter experience 
may teach us these lessons ; but how much 
wiser, how much safer to " hear the rod, and 
who hath appointed it," and listen to his voice 
" now in this accepted time." Let us, then, 

II. In the second place, advert to the 

THINGS IN WHICH WE MAY GLORY. 

There are other and higher principles of 
action than those to which we have referred, 
and we gladly turn to them. They are high 
and exalted principles, and in alliance with 
heaven's conflict with the powers of darkness. 
They are the knowledge, the love, the fear, the 
will, the favor of the Most High. If I know 
myself, my object in addressing you is to hon- 
or THE Supreme Ruler of the universe, and 
in this solemn controversy call upon our rul- 
ers, our warriors, and my countrymen every 
where to give glory to the Lord God omnip- 
otent. While " the wise may not glory in 
their wisdom," nor the mighty in their might, 
nor the rich in their wealth, there is One in 
whom they may glory. ''Thus saith the 
Lord" Let him that glorieth glory in this, 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 



21 



that he understandeth and knoweth me, 

THAT I AM THE LoRD THAT EXERCISE LOVING- 
KINDNESS, JUDGMENT, AND RIGHTEOUSNESS IN 
THE EARTH ; FOR IN THESE THINGS DO I DELIGHT, 

SAiTH THE Lord. Let us ampUfy these in- 
structive and precious thoughts. 

Thus saith the Lord, "Let him that glori- 
eth glory in this, that he understandeth and 
KNOWETH me." It is a humihating fact that so 
little is known of God in the very world which 
was made by him, and which is upheld and 
governed by his omnipotent hand. Men " do 
not like to retain God in their knowledge." 
Though he is every where present, and more 
interested in them, and they have more to do 
with him, and he with them, than any other 
being in the universe, yet they say, "How 
doth God know ? Can he judge through the 
dark cloud ?" 

It is emphatically the sin of nations that, in 
prosperity and adversity, in peace and in war, 
they think so little of God, and in their coun- 
sels, their public documents, their victories, 
and their defeats, are so slow of heart to ac- 
knowledge and honor his supremacy. Yet is 
" the Lord, whose name is jealous, a jealous 
God." He forms a just estimate of his own 



22 THANKSGIVING SERMON. 

character, claims, and prerogatives, and justly 
requires that a fitting regard be paid to them 
by all the nations of the earth. He can not 
be indifferent to their treatment of him any 
more than he can deny himself If the dis- 
pensations of his providence are often dark 
and mysterious, and often contravene the de- 
signs, arrangements, and expectations of men, 
it is that they " may know that he is the Lord 
in the midst of the earth." He would wake 
up their attention to the reality of his being, 
and bring his character and government dis- 
tinctly before their minds. Many are the pe- 
riods in the history of the world when these 
great realities have forced themselves upon 
the consideration of the unthinking nations. 
Many is the epoch in our own national histo- 
ry when rulers and subjects have been con- 
strained to go beyond their ordinary convic- 
tions, and been made to feel, and feel deeply, 
that there is a Power above us. We may 
well give this truth an abiding lodgment in 
our hearts. With all our wisdom, all our 
prowess, and all our wealth, there is One who 
"increaseth the nations and destroyeth them, 
and who enlargeth the nations and straiten- 
eth them again;" who controls the material 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 03 

and the moral, the civil and the religious, in 
and by all accomplishing his own benevolent 
and holy ends. We shall never feel as we 
ought, nor conduct the great and solemn work 
in which we are employed as it ought to be 
conducted, until we feel our dependence on 
God, and lay ourselves in humble prostration 
at his feet. " Shall the axe boast itself against 
him that heweth therewith ? or shall the saw 
magnify itself against him that shaketh it ? as 
if the rod should shake itself against them 
that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up 
itself as if it were no wood !" 

There is no lesson more important at such 
a day of rebuke as this than that we " un- 
derstand AND KNOW Him" — Him, the Eternal 
and Infinite One, who was, and is, and is to 
come, when the nations are dissolved, and the 
heavens and the earth have passed away — 
Him who, while time is measuring off and, in 
its rapid and silent progress transforming all 
created things, remains the same, yesterday, 
to-day, and forever — Him whose immensity 
is as unbounded as his being, who comprises 
all, and is comprised by none ; who sees alike 
in the thickest darkness and in the bright sun- 
light, and from whom there is no retreat, on 



24 THANKSGIVING SERMON. 

land or sea, in heaven or hell — Him, the all- 
powerful God, the Lord of Hosts, who holds 
creation in his hands, before whom the flow- 
er of Lebanon fades away, and the beauty of 
Bashan and Carmel languish, and at whose 
command the sun and the moon stand still, 
that kings and heroes may be broken in pieces 
as a potter's vessel — Him from whom and to 
whom are all things, who holdeth the waters 
in the hollow of his hand, and turneth the 
heart of kings as the rivers of water are turn- 
ed. I 
In such a one may we glory, not only for 
these attributes ofgreatness, but, more than all, 
for the moral properties of his nature. "I," 
says he, " am the Lord which exercise loving- 
kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the 
earth." His greatness fills our minds with 
reverence and awe; his loving-kindness at- 
tracts our love and confidence ; it charms us ; 
we glory in it ; it is emphatically the glory of 
his nature. There would be no beauty, no 
loveliness in his character, were there no kind 
and benevolent affections. These are his 
adornment; without them, he would be but "a 
consuming fire." And these, marvelous to be 
revealed to such a sinning and abject world 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. ^5 

as this, are the precursors and heralds of his 
providence, pubhshing as they go that " he is 
good and does good, and that his tender mer- 
cies are over all his works." If v^e glory in 
him we shall be more like him, and not carry 
a bitter and malignant, or revengeful spirit 
even to the field of battle. This is not the 
spirit of the God of battles. Every righteous 
war is a benevolent war ; and when its great 
and good ends are attained, it sheathes the 
sword. 

We may glory in him also because he ex- 
ercises judgment in the earth. " Behold, there- 
fore, the goodness and the severity of God." 
We sometimes look abroad upon the world 
in which we dwell, and wonder at the disas- 
ters which befall it. But we are creatures 
of a day, and know nothing. When we think 
of his loving-kindness, we may not forget that 
" verily there is a God that judgeth in the 
earth." They are impressive views of the 
divine character that are often manifested in 
the dispensations of a punitive providence. 
Holy angels and holy men, the Church in 
heaven and the Church in earth, would be 
thrown into deep confusion and dismay if 
they did not know that "justice and judgment 



26 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 



are the habitation of his throne." He is their 
refuge and strength, and they look to him for 
protection and safety, to plead and maintain 
their cause, to oppose, and confound, and de- 
stroy their enemies, because he "exercises 
judgment in the earth." They direct their 
supplications to him, and " by terrible things 
in righteousness does he answer them." His 
benevolent designs, his gracious promises can 
not be accomplished without affecting judg- 
ments. There are crises in the history of 
nations when an interposing and punitive 
providence is necessary to his own wise ar- 
rangements. We may be brought low, but 
our help and our hope are in Him who not 
only exercises loving-kindness, but judgment 
in the earth. If there are those who wrong 
us, sooner or later they will complete the 
measure of their arrogance, and be made to 
feel the weight of his omnipotent hand. 

And what may more increase our hope and 
confidence is the assurance that he " exercises 
righteousness in the earth." He is quick to 
discern what is right and what is wrong. His 
moral rectitude was never tarnished by his 
approbation of wrong-doing. " He is a Rock ; 
his work is perfect ; a God of truth and with- 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 37 

out iniquity, just and right is he.' Every 
true patriot desires nothing but what is right 
for his country. If he adopts the prayer of 
the Psalmist against his enemies, " Destroy 
thou them, O God ; let them fall by their own 
counsels; cast them out in the multitude of 
their transgressions, for they have rebelled 
against thee," it is because their appeal is 
founded on the divine righteousness. Under 
the righteous government of the Most High, 
wicked men and wicked nations may expect 
to be overtaken by the divine judgments, and 
in their bold and impious wickedness to be 
caught in their own snare. He will plead his 
own cause. As the Judge of the earth, he 
will " lift up himself and render a reward to 
the proud." 

They are no local or partial interests that 
he looks upon, but the great interests of the 
Church and the world. His loving-kindness, 
his judgment, and his righteousness stand 
firm ; they stand upright and abreast, and, 
through the redemption of his Son, in undis- 
turbed harmony and in unsullied beauty. We 
wonder most at his loving-kindness ; yet we 
may not be disappointed if even justice is 
meted out to the nations of the earth, and so 



2g THANKSGIVING SERMON. 

conspicuously that the righteous shall adore 
the hand that lifts them up, and the wicked 
shall feel the blow that crushes them — so con- 
spicuously that " the Lord alone shall be ex- 
alted in that day." 

In these things we may glory. On these 
we may rely. These we are under sacred 
obligations to honor. If you ask how we 
shall honor them, I answer by distinctly recog- 
nizing them ; by our obedience to God's com- 
mands ; by our reverence for his name and 
his institutions ; by our submission to his will, 
and by our regard and solicitude for his king- 
dom of truth and righteousness, peace and 
joy. And do you ask ichy we ought to glory 
in these things ? I answer, Heaven glories 
in them, and earth may well glory in them. 
Heaven long ago began the ascription, " Great 
and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Al- 
mighty ; just and true are thy ways, O thou 
King of Saints !" And the earth may well 
respond to the ascription. God himself glo- 
ries in just such weighty realities as these. 
Mercy and justice — justice, without which 
wickedness is sure to be triumphant ; mercy, 
without which we all perish — " in these things 
do I dehght, saith the Lord." This, too, is 



THANKSGIVING SERMON, 29 

the proper business, the true honor and bless- 
edness of man. When God called the Amer- 
ican people from lands of tyranny and perse- 
cution ; when he drove out the heathen before 
them, and gave them this fair land for a pos- 
session to themselves and their children; 
when he carried them triumphantly through 
the conflict which resulted in establishing us 
one of the independent nations of the earth ; 
when he gave us a Constitution and a gov- 
ernment so fitted to our wants, our enlarge- 
ment, and our prosperity, it was that we might 
honor him, and promote the wise and benev- 
olent ends he had in view in assigning to us 
this honored place among the kingdoms of 
this world. This is our high calling ; and we 
may despair of accompUshing it if we ignore 
our dependence upon him and our trust in 
him. He is worthy of this confidence, and 
requires us to cast ourselves upon him for 
the accomphshment of his designs and our 
vocation. Independently of him, we do but 
rush upon our own destruction. Look the 
world over, read the history of the past, and 
you will find that the happiest nations and 
the most honored were those whose charac- 
ter and laws, whose liberty and order the most 



30 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 



exalted the God of heaven. The foundations 
of this government were laid by him ; he took 
the work' into his own hands ; it was settled 
and arranged by him ; and when it was com- 
pleted it was a work worthy of its divine Au- 
thor. And now that it has enjoyed such 
marked tokens of his favor, and we are call- 
ed on to defend and perpetuate its existence 
and its heaven-imparted blessings, shall we 
not look to him to plan for us and to provide 
for us still, and, as we address ourselves to 
coming dangers, fix our eyes upon " the pillar 
of cloud by day" and of " fire by night ?" 
Then, this conflict over, and union and peace 
restored to this convulsed land, we shall know, 
and the nations of the earth will know, what 
a God there is in heaven. The world will 
know that he hath gotten to himself a great 
name, and that he is the Head and glory of 
these states, and the " rewarder of them that 
diligently seek him." 

Such are the principles by which, as a na- 
tion, we ought to be governed. They are true 
principles ; and, like all moral truth, are the 
source of high and noble impulses. They are 
motives which form the character of every 
good man, every good ruler, every good army. 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 



31 



They are principles of action which are ef- 
fective, full of energy, and which can endure 
reverses and become stronger by defeat, and 
which no changes of fortune and no discour- 
agement can eradicate. They will not be- 
come giddy by victory, nor will they expire 
in the confusion of battle and amid garments 
rolled in blood. They will not move with 
the multitude simply because the multitude 
move, but only as it moves right. They will 
not change to time-serving and trickishness, 
but will stand stable and firm. They will not 
blow up the flame of war without reason, nor 
will they cry " Peace, peace," when pride and 
contention, animosity and strife, wrong and 
wrong-doers, are breaking up the integrity of 
the nation, and overturning the harmony and 
prosperity of the world. They are agitating 
principles only against evil, coalescing and 
combining with every element of goodness 
and rectitude. There is no safety for a na- 
tion that despises or dishonors them. Patri- 
otism is never so pure, so exalted, so to be 
relied on as when it springs from moral prin- 
ciple, and is founded in affectionate reverence 
for God. " It is better to trust in the Lord 
than to have confidence in men; it is better 



32 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 



to trust in the Lord than to have confidence 
in princes." It is his ov\^n declaration, " Them 
that honor me I w^ill honor, and they that de- 
spise me shall be lightly esteemed." 

With all the profiision of the divine bounty 
scattered over the land, this year 1861 has 
been, and is, a year of unparalleled severity 
to the American people. We are now amid 
the calamities of civil v\^ar. Portions of the 
land are the theatre of violence and blood : 
carnage and desolation have sv^ept over their 
fields and their villages, and humanity weeps. 
Though we ourselves are at a distance from 
this work of death, we sympathize in its par- 
alyzing influence through all the departments 
of life and business, converting, as it does, 
seats of industry and joyous homes into boding 
silence, restless anxiety, and bitter tears. Nor 
may we predict what will be on the morrow. 
No mortal eye can see what reverses we may 
meet with, nor under what strokes of a right- 
eous and chastening Providence we may be 
called to bleed. 

When the first indications of this conflict 
made their appearance, all my prepossessions, 
as is well known, were with the Southern 
States. If their leading statesmen had con- 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 33 

ducted themselves like men; if the ministers 
of the Gospel and their churches had conduct- 
ed themselves like Christians and as friends 
of peace — for myself^ I would have been 
the advocate of some amicable arrangement 
rather than have been forced to the arbitra- 
ment of the sword. But when, instead of this, 
I hear so few kind words, and these suppress- 
ed by violence or fear; when crafty politi- 
cians, eager for fame, and panting for place 
and power, blind and enslave the minds of the 
people ; when I learn that this secession was 
preconcerted and determined on in years gone 
by, and was only "biding its time," and that 
the time and the occasion for it were all ar- 
ranged, and the signal given and the blow 
struck for causes over which the South not 
only had entire control, but itself created; 
when I read the ordinance of secession itself] 
severing the tie that bound the people of the 
United States together so prosperously and 
happily, and all because the Slave States had 
for a time lost their supremacy ; when, to in- 
sure this severance, men high in office, in the 
cabinet, in the army, in the navy, at home and 
abroad, became false to their oaths of citizen- 
ship and of office, spoilers of the public treas- 



34 THANKSGIVING SERMON. 

ury and traitors to their country ; when, in the 
phrensy of their rebelhon, they form a govern- 
ment, seize our forts and arsenals, our nation- 
al ships and our navy-yards, appropriate the 
government property, dishonor and insult our 
national flag, and by an armed force threaten 
the very city of our solemnities, and all this 
when the government of the nation has been 
virtually in the hands of the South for the 
greater part of our national existence, and that <^htn 
from the adoption of the Federal Constitution 
down to the repeal of the Missouri Compro- 
mise the North has made concession upon 
concession without satisfying the demands 
of her exacting neighbors — when I see these 
things, my convictions are strong that we have 
reached the limit beyond which forbearance 
may not be extended. Who will complain 
that we grasped the sword ? Strong as have 
been my predilections for the South, and de- 
cided as my views still are that on her return 
to her loyalty she is entitled to equal rights 
and immunities with the North, I have not 
been able to see, nor do I now see, the justice, 
the equity of her demands. We regard the 
act of secession, so causeless, so rash, so frat- 
ricidal, so ruthless, as unequaled in wicked- 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 35 

ness. I do not know that the history of the 
world records a * more criminal procedure. 
After what I have said on a former occasion, 
It is needless for me to enlarge on this theme. 
Proof upon proof has been multiphed in the 
daily and weekly journals, in the quarterly re- 
views and periodicals, and in discourses from 
the pulpit, many of them written with great 
candor and great ability, of the fallacy, the 
political heresy of the doctrine that every 
state possesses the reserved right of with- 
drawing at pleasure from the federal com- 
pact. Concede this, and we have no Union, 
no government, no nation ; secession abohsh- 
es the national constitution and subverts its 
government. 

We should have no difference of opinion as 
to the part which the Church of God, in her 
organized capacity, ought to pursue in this 
matter if we are once united on this one ques- 
tion. If the question were a mere political 
one, and had no moral bearings, we might hes- 
itate. If it were an open question, we might 
hesitate. As Presbyterians, and guided not 
merely by the convictions of conscience, but 
by the decisions of the assembled Church, we 
regard secession not merely as a "pohtical 



2Q THANKSGIVING SERMON. 

blunder," but as crime, as sin against God and 
man. If the Church of God may not bear her 
testimony against such wickedness, what is the 
design and object of her organization? Is it 
that her hght may shine, or that she may put 
it under a bushel ? If human governments 
"frame iniquity by a law;" if, for example, 
they legalize profanity, dueling, the slave- 
trade. Sabbath-breaking, theft, murder, must the 
Church, as such, be silent, simply because sins 
like these have the seal of her country's leg- 
islation? We have not so learned Christ. 
There is no form of wickedness against which 
she is not bound to enter her solemn protest. 
Christians are bound to do so as Christians. 
Sessions, presbyteries, synods, and the Gener- 
al Assembly are bound to do so by their pub- 
lic acts. We do not understand the logic, the 
morality, or the Presbyterianism of imposing 
silence on ecclesiastical judicatories in mat- 
ters of such grave moment to truth and right- 
eousness. I would be slow to put into the 
hands of Congregationalists and Independents 
so heavy a weapon against our own ecclesias- 
tical organization as to affirm that when " po- 
litical questions rise to the sphere of morals 
and religion," the rule of action is not to be 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 3"^ 

sought in the law of God. The protest of 
the minority of the last General Assembly 
against the scriptural action of that body upon 
this subject is before the world ; and, notwith- 
standing the authority of the source from 
which it proceeded, its sophistry and weakness 
are by this time sufficiently apparent. When 
loyalty to our country is acknowledged to be 
" a moral and religious duty," and when the 
" right of the Assembly to enjoin this duty on 
the ministers and churches under its care" is 
unequivocally avowed, it appears to us that 
the Protestants themselves decide this great 
moral question ; and it is but miserable quib- 
bling by which they would traverse their own 
declaration, I crave to know if the Church 
of God has no right to her deliverance of the 
truth as it is in Jesus on such a question as 
this. We desire no stronger language than 
the words of this protest itself " If the state 
pass any laws contrary to the law of God, 
then it is the duty of the Church, to whom 
God has committed the great work of assert- 
ing and maintaining his truth and will, to pro- 
test and remonstrate." The simple question 
is. Is this secession of the South morally right ? 
If not, it is an egregious wrong; and that 



38 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 



man does not honor the name of Presbyterian 
who is unwilHng to say so. Thanks to the 
great Head of the Church, this cautious skep- 
ticism taints the minds of but few in the midst 
of us. The history of the Church of Scotland 
and of our own Church furnishes emphatic 
records of the right and duty of the Church 
of God to warn those under their care against 
the wicked legislation of human governments. 
In other ages it was her privilege, in defiance 
of the sword and the fagot, to assert the au- 
thority of her great Head over all human laws. 
We live in an age of the world too far ad- 
vanced in civil and religious liberty, and too 
imperative in its demands on the moral cour- 
age of good men, to be restrained from utter- 
ing the truth in plain language. And, if we 
mistake not, those, and especially those minis- 
ters of the Gospel who question the correct- 
ness of these views, will be found, both in their 
preaching and in their prayers, to be exceed- 
ingly wary, if not non-coniinittal, upon the 
great wickedness of the Southern rebellion. 
Probe them, and, with some noble exceptions, 
you will find them rotten at the core.* 

* Among these exceptions the editor of the Danville Re- 
view holds an honorable j)lace. 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 39 

The action of the last General Assembly 
meant to decide the question to what govern- 
ment the allegiance of Presbyterians as citi- 
zens is due. They meant to decide the ques- 
tion that, in this land, it is primarily due to 
the United States. When it called upon the 
churches under its care to strengthen and 

uphold THE FEDERAL GOVERNIVIENT, they kllCW 

what they were about ; and if they did not mean 
to decide this question, they decided nothing. 
They rightly called upon the churches even in 
the rebellious states to protest against wicked- 
ness, and to lift their voices against rebellion. 
It is puerile to say that they should hesitate 
in so doing because their action exposed the 
Southern churches to the frowns of the so- 
called government of the South. The simple 
question is. Is the pseudo-government of the 
South A GOVERNMENT wJiich IS the ordinance 
of God, or is it a wicked revolt from the " pow- 
ers that be, and are ordained of God ?" If the 
latter, it was the sacred and most religious 
duty of Southern ministers to discountenance 
it, be the consequences what they may. What 
if it did expose them to peril in the cause of 
truth and righteousness ? Is this an anomaly 
in the history of the Church of God, as though 



40 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 



" some strange thing" had happened to her ? 
And I take leave to say, with all frankness, if 
the ministers of the Gospel at the South had 
not shut their ears against the instructions of 
God's Word — if they had honestly and earn- 
estly sought to know the truth, and had bold- 
ness equal to the exigency, this frightful con- 
flict would never have desolated the land. A 
little firmness on the part of our Southern 
brethren would have chained "the dogs of 
war" and saved the country. In my humble 
judgment, fearful wickedness is attached to 
the pulpits of the South in this matter. If 
they had not been given over to great mental 
blindness, in defiance of all artifice and men- 
aces of perfidious politicians, they would have 
arrested the hand of the destroyer. The pul- 
pit of the South does not know its power. 
Does not know its power, did I say ? I recall 
the words. It knows it too well, and has ex- 
erted it too systematically. It was among the 
earliest and boldest preachers of sedition : the 
course it pursued was rebellion baptized in 
the waters of the sanctuary. Its ministers 
are not only rebels, but among the leaders 
of a rebellion which they might have crushed 
in the bud. What the issue will be is in the 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 4J 

hands of a wise and almighty Providence. 
They have " sown the wind," and it would be 
no unusual and no undeserved result if they 
"reap the whirlwind." I can excuse the ig- 
norant, and even the arrogant, for the part 
they have been instigated to tread on this field 
of blood, but I can not excuse Christian min- 
isters. I could say something to palhate the 
perfidy and intrigue of ambitious statesmen ; 
but for good men, able men, God's ministers, 
knowing as they do that the North asked 
nothing, aimed at nothing, and were pursuing 
nothing but the supremacy of the laws and 
the maintenance of equal rights in every part 
of the Union, to stamp upon and tread in the 
dust the principles which their and our fathers 
secured by so much service and suffering — 
for this we have no apology. They are trai- 
tors, striking blow after blow upon all that is 
vital in the structure of human society ; and 
not a few of them, in all the sanctity of their 
ofl^icial robes, are armed traitors. 

War is a fearful remedy, but history teach- 
es us that there are greater evils than the 
shock of battle. God grant that we may 
never learn that the destruction of our Con- 
stitution and our Union is a greater evil ; that 
the loss of our civil and religious liberty is a 



42 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 



greater evil ; that a Southern Empire, extend- 
ing to Cuba and Mexico, v^ith the slave-trade 
as its basis, is not a greater evil ; that the ex- 
tinction of our national life, in which so many 
precious hopes for ourselves, for posterity, for 
the world, are bound up, is a greater evil. 
We reluctantly take up the sword in defense 
of the rich heritage God has given us, and 
most cheerfully will we return it to its scab- 
bard when this heritage is secure. We feel 
no responsibility resting upon us as friends 
of the federal government but that of self-de- 
fense. In resorting to this stern arbitrament 
of the sword, there is fearful responsibility 
somewhere. And we call the nations of the 
earth to witness — nay, we call the God of na- 
tions to witness that, instead of seeking, we 
not only did not desire it, we did not expect 
it ; we were utterly unprepared for it ; it came 
upon us like the lightning in a midsummer 
day. It will be the joy of our hearts and the 
thank-offering of our lips to sound the retreat 
the moment the voice of rebellion is silent. 
We have no bitterness against the South. 
We do not wish to reign over them, but to 
reign with them, and wish them to reign with 
us, and to participate equally with us, as they 
ever have done, in all the rights and immuni- 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 43 

ties of the federal government. This will not 
satisfy them, and hence the carnage. Their 
consciences testify where the responsibility 
rests. No man questions the fact that this 
fratricidal war took its rise from them ; and 
we are bold to say it did not take its rise from 
the love of truth and rectitude, nor from the 
love of God or man. In view of the unmeas- 
ured calamities of this contest, its authors 
have a solemn account to render to them- 
selves, to the God of nations, to the civihzed 
and uncivilized world. 

This is the ground on which I stand as an 
American citizen and as a Christian minis- 
ter. I have confidence in the rectitude of our 
cause; I have confidence in the loyalty of the 
people ; I have confidence in the valor of our 
arms ; and I have confidence in God. The 
most depraved and ambitious of our enemies 
are under his control, to be restrained in their 
outrageous passions, frustrated in their daring 
designs, and turned from them to purposes of 
conciliation and peace. We do not expect 
miracles from his hand even in a just cause. 
He has other ways of working, and they are 
the instrumentalities and agencies of wise 
counsels, carried into effect by the united en- 
ergy of the people. It is thus he will make 



44 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 



bare his arm and defend the right. I plead 
with my countrymen to give God the throne ; 
but I am no advocate for the faith that is with- 
out works. It was sound theology, sound mor- 
als, and true heroism when Cromwell exhort- 
ed his soldiers to " trust in God, and keep their 
powder dry." Our strength lies not in an in- 
active trust in God, but in strong convictions 
of right and duty ; in unsleeping watchfulness 
and undiscouraged effort; in losing sight of 
the miserable distinctions of party for the 
common weal ; in being fellow-workers with 
the All-wise, and All-powerful, and Supreme 
Ruler in crushing this gigantic and causeless 
rebellion. And when this fierce flame has 
burnt itself out, or been quenched in showers 
of mercy or showers of wrath, we will not 
forget who it is that " breaketh the bow, and 
cutteth the spear asunder, and burneth the 
chariot in the fire." 

We have a duty to perform, my country- 
men, and we may not be disheartened by dif- 
ficulties. It has been well said that "reverses 
dishearten only where there is weakness to 
be disheartened. Small is the strength, any 
where and every where, that can not stand 
adversity ; and small will it stay, and smaller 
will it grow, to the end." We have met with 



THANKSGIVING SEEMON. ^g 

reverses, but those very reverses have as- 
sured us that we have no ground for discour- 
agement. When the ten tribes revolted from 
the throne of David, Israel did not lose its 
confidence in God. When our Revolutiona- 
ry fathers fled before the British cannon and 
the Indian tomahawk, they did not lose their 
confidence in God. They were reared and 
nursed amid reverses, and came from scenes 
of blood to found this empire of law, order, 
and liberty. They are looking down upon 
us to-day, and I seem to hear them say to 
you and to me, " Hold fast that thou hast ; let 
no man take thy crown." 

For myself, I hardly hope to survive this 
fearful controversy. I love the land which 
gave me birth, and which is the place of my 
fathers' and my childrens' sepulchres. I love 
it as one of the stanch pillars of good govern- 
ment ; as the friend and patron of every good 
word and work ; as the soil where the vine that 
was brought out of Egypt has flourished and 
filled the land ; as destined to herald forth and 
perpetuate those " years of the right hand 
of the Most High," when " knowledge, with 
strength of salvation, shall be the stability of 
the times." I am sensible we are exposed by 
our self-confidence. We have stood on an 



4g THANKSGIVING SERMON. 

elevation so lofty that it is easy for us to be- 
come giddy and have our heads turned. Let 
us take shame to ourselves, and suppress the 
flame of turbulent passion and vainglory. If 
a wise providence designs this war as a school 
in which the American character is to be bur- 
nished and invigorated, it is that we may study 
and learn those high principles of morality 
and rectitude which will guide its upward and 
onward course, and whence it may start afresh 
on a career of honor to itself and a blessing 
to the world. 

It is with monitions and hopes like these 
that we hail this day of thanksgiving and 
PRAISE. It is in every view fitting that we 
make our grateful acknowledgments to the 
Great Giver for his distinguished goodness 
toward us during the year. Such health, such 
plenty, such promptness to anticipate the 
wants of the poor, even in the midst of all 
these staofnations of business and commercial 
embarrassments, demand our thanks. Nor is 
this all. Does not this rising of a great peo- 
ple in defense of their government demand 
our thanks ? Do not the public proclama- 
tions of the chief magistrate of the nation, and 
of the chief magistrate of our own common- 
wealth, so beautifully recognizing the claims 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 47 

of the Supreme Ruler, demand our thanks ? 
Does not the official and personal reverence 
for the God of heaven on the part of the youth- 
ful chief of our armies demand our thanks ? 
Do not the suppression of vice, and the en- 
couragements and facilities to Christian wor- 
ship and moral virtue among our soldiery, 
and an increasing reverence for the Sabbath 
among ourselves, demand our thanks ?» Do 
not the successes of our arms by sea and by 
land demand our thanks ? Does not the very 
period in our history in which a righteous 
Providence has called us to this conflict — a 
period which, had it been deferred for twenty 
years, would have seen us a ruined people, 
and ruined by our own corruptions — a con- 
flict for which, in wealth and numbers, we 
were never so well prepared, demand our 
thanks ? Does not the state of the world, 
teeming with events of religious interest, and 
on the tiptoe of expectation for the downfall 
of every form of anti-Christ, and the universal 
spread of the Gospel of the Son of God, de- 
mand our thanks ? And does not even our 
present position, arranged and decided by a 
wise Providence for such an age and state of 
the world as those we now occupy, inspire 
hopes and expectations that should fill our 



48 THANKSGIVING SERMON. 

hearts with confidence and our hps with 
praise ? 

But, while this is the hour of thankssfivino^, 
it becomes us to be humble as well as thank- 
ful. It may be doubted whether there is any 
true gratitude where there is no humility. 
Humility is the breath of gratitude, because 
we are so unworthy and ill-deserving ; grati- 
tude 4s humility's song, because the God of 
nations so delights in exercising loving-kind- 
ness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. 
Let us therefore bow in humble gratitude be- 
fore the eternal throne, and, while we discern 
streams of light in the cloud that hangs over 
us, commit this conflict and its issues to Hhn. 
Let us take heed lest we think of ourselves 
more highly than we ought to think, and lose 
sight of Him by whom kings reign and princes 
decree justice. It is the great God who is 
speaking to us. Let us give glory to Him be- 
fore he cause darkness, and our feet stumble 
upon the dark mountains. The wisdom of 
the wise, the power of the mighty, the wealth 
of the rich, consist in feeling their dependence 
upon Him, in acknowledging their obligations 
to Him, in giving Him the glory to whom all 
glory belongs. 



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